San Jose Convention Center January 2013, FurCon moves in over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend for a 4 day convention featuring art, comedy, comics, gaming, costumes and a lot of dancing. Most of our work took place in the 22,000 sq. ft. ballroom, though there was an art room where we installed 4 lighting trees with PARs to illuminate the art work, and a Dealer’s room where we provided power to the various dealer’s booths.
Load In for the event took 2 days, 4 box trucks, a pickup and a work van. In the Ballroom we provided 64 10′ sticks of truss that were hoisted by 20 1/2 ton chain motors to support the lights in two “T” shapes. We also used truss to support and illuminate large FurCon banners. We provided, in total, 77 conventional lights, 87 color-changing LED fixtures, and 10 moving lights. Lighting coverage included the banners, the dance floor, and the stage. The stage was relatively large utilizing 22 Steeldeck at 44′ w x 16′ d surrounded by railing, drapes, skirting, and included two sets of stairs. Next to the stage was a 9′ x 12′ projection screen which displayed I-MAG (video reinforcement) of on stage performances as well as pre-produced video play back relative to the performance. Audio was covered by 4 sets of line arrays; 8 Meyers M1Ds and 8 QSCs KLA12s, and 4 sets of Meyer and QSC subwoofers. We also constructed a 2-level A/V control booth in the back of house where sound was controlled from our Allen and Heath GL-3300 soundboard, and lighting was wirelessly controlled over 3 dmx universes from our Jands Vista T2 lighting console.
Though any experience for us is generally an enjoyable experience, this was especially exciting. While working in the San Jose Convention Center is always a unique experience, the rush of creating an event this diverse within the allowed timeframe and constructing it right is incomparable. We also enjoyed all the great people we met and worked with including members and staff of Further Confusion, IATSE, and the Teamsters. We are already planning for an even bigger and better FurCon 2014!
